Registering means for taximeters



A. WEISS Filed D80.

IN V EN TOR;

I W A TTORNEYR REGISTERING MEANS FOR TAXIMETERS May 14, 1935.

Patented May i4, 1935 PATENT OFFICE 7 2,001,373 REGISTERING MEANS ron TAXIMETERS Abraham Weiss, New York, N. Y;, assig'nor Edward Weiss, New York, N. Y.

Application December 17, 1930, Serial No. 502,950

2 Claims.

The present invention relates to motor vehicles of the taxi type, the taximeter of which is controlled by a so called -fiag". With such vehicles, the owner has to depend upon the honesty of the driver for the fare collected.

Frequently unscrupulous drivers make special deals with the passengers and fail to throw the flag into registering position so that the fare collected is unrecorded and is a loss to the owner of the vehicle.

The object of this invention is to provide a device wherein the time or distance during which the driver carries a passenger without setting the flag to registering position is recorded.

This'object I may accomplish by providing electro-magnetically operated registering means controlled automatically through an electric switch in the passenger compartment of the vehicle while the flag oi'the meter is in nonregistering position.

With the above and other objects in view, my invention comprises the novel combination, arrangement and construction of elements hereinafter to be more fully described, shown and defined in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawing which forms part of this specification and in which similar reference characters denote corresponding parts:

The figure is a diagrammatic view of my device.

My invention is embodied in a device which will register mileage only when the driver attempts to drive his vehicle with the flag in 35 unregistering position while the vehicle is cocupied by a passenger. Here, as before, b represents the taximeter of any well known type. 23 represents a rotatable shaft suitably journaled in a wall of the casing 2| and to 40 the outer end of which may be attached the usual fiexible transmission cord 24 which may be geared in usual manner by a gear 25 to one of the vehicle wheels, (not shown). The inner end of said shaft 23 has keyed thereto a gear 26 which in turn is connected by an intermediate speed reducing gear 21 to a large diametered gear 28 mounted on a suitable shaft 29. Also mounted on said shaft in rotatable manner relative to the said gear 23 is a disk 30 provided with suitable known pawl and detent arrangement (not shown) for engagement with said gear whereby rotation imparted to said gear will be transmitted to said disk only in one direction. Mounted at two diametrically opposite points on said disk and projecting upwardly therefrom are two pins 3| and 32. Supported in suitable bearings in said casing is a shaft 33 whose lower end is provided with a cross'arm 34 adapted to be engaged by said pins 3| and 32 and thereby couple said shaft to said disk 30. Mounted on said shaft is a worm 35 which meshes with a worm gear 36 suitably fixed on a shaft 36 supported in the casing 2|. A second gear 31 concentric with gear 36 which on shaft 36 meshes with a gear 38 fixed on a rotatable shaft 39.

Slidably keyed on said shaft 39 is a toothed element 40 of a sliding clutch. Rotatively mounted about said shaft is a gear 4| having fixed thereto the second toothed interlocking element 42 of the sliding clutch. Said gear 4| is geared to well known counting or registering mechanism 43 used in the present instant to register miles in steps of tenths, a column wheel 43 registering tenths of miles, a second 43' reg- H istering units and a third 43 recording tens. The construction of this unit is well known and requires no detailed description thereof. It is sufiicient to say that the gearing therein is such that for each complete rotation of the tenths columnwheel, the units column wheel rotates a tenth of a revolution and likewise for each complete rotation of the units column wheel the tens column wheel rotates a tenth of a revolution. Other suitable mileage registers may be used. The gearing ratio from the vehicle wheel through to said tenths unit wheel of course must be such that said tenths wheel will rotate a tenth of a revolution for each of a mile covered by the vehicle.

It is of course, understood that the above described registering mechanism is auxiliary to the regular taximeter registering mechanism, which latter does not form part of the present invention and is not shown in detail to secure clarity of the drawing. Said taximeter mecha nism however, is of course, in actual practice in the casing 2| and controlled in well known manner by the flag a.

In, order to slide the clutch element 40 into engagement with the corresponding element 42 on gear 4|, I provide the lever 44, pivoted intermediate its ends. The lower arm 44' of said lever engages an annular recess in said element 40. Suitable resilient means 48 attached to the upper arm 44 of lever 44 tends to swing said arm so as to keep member 40 out of engagement with the member 42 i. e. to keep the clutch open.

The lever 44 is adapted to be actuated only when the flag a of the taximeter is up and a passenger occupies the vehicle. To this end a solenoid coil 4 is provided. The front end of the core 38 of said solenoid is pivoted in a slot 44 in the upper arm 64 of lever 44. ll denotes the switch controlled from the flag a of taximeter 1) which may be of the conventional con-- struction. One of the contact pieces of the switch ii is connected by wire I2 to one of the contact pieces of the switch ID, the second contact piece of the latter being grounded as at 8 denotes a source of electrical energy, such as a battery, one pole of which through a wire 5' is connected to the second contact piece of switch i I. The second pole of the said source of electrical energy is connected by wire N to one terminal of the solenoid 47, the second ter minal of the latter being connected by wire l e to one terminal of a switch 22 adapted to be operated from the accelerator pedal 0 of the ve hicle, the other terminal of said switch being connected by wire M to the ground.

The operation of my device is as follows:--

If the flag is up and no one is in the back compartment the circuit is open through switch E3 and hence the core 48 of the solenoid 41 is unactuated, and non-paying miles are not registered, the sliding clutch members 40 and 42 being disengaged. As a passenger enters or seats himself in the rear compartment switch H! is closed. If the driver now attempts to drive the car with the flag up by pressing on the accelerator 0, switch 22 is closed and the solenoid s? is actuated, so that the non-paying mileage is registered. But as soon as the flag is lowered the circuit through switch H is broken and no registering on the auxiliary register shown occurs.

It is obvious that the application of my invention is not limited to the details shown and described, and I do not Wish to be limited therey.

What I claim is:

1. In a motor vehicle having a passenger compartment, an accelerator pedal, a flag controlled taximeter, a source of electric power whose circuit includes a switch operated by the flag of said taximeter and adapted to be closed when said flag is in nonregistering position, a second switch adapted to be closed when said passenger compartment is occupied, and a third switch adapted to be closed by the depression of said accelerator pedal, mileage registering means adapted to be operated from a rotatable part of said vehicle, a clutch mechanism for controlling the operation of said registering means, composed of a pair of toothed elements, one of said elements being slidable relative to the other, the second of said toothed elements being geared to said registering means, a rock lever coupled to said slidable toothed element and electromagnetic means controlled from said electric source and adapted to be energized when said first two named switches are closed, the solenoid of said electro-magnet being adapted to actuate said rock lever so as to engage said toothed elements with one another to render said registering means operative.

' 2. In a motor vehicle having a passenger compartment, an accelerator pedal, a flag controlled taximeter, a source of electric power whose circuit includes a switch operated by the flag of said taximeter and adapted to be closed when said flag is in non-registering position, a second switch adapted to be closed when said passenger compartment is occupied and a third switch adapted to be closed by the depression of said accelerator pedal, mileage registering means adapted to be operated from a. rotatable part of said vehicle, means for controlling the operation of said registering means including two elements displaceable relative to one another and of which one is operatively connected to said registering means, rocking means coupled to the other of said elements and electro-magnetic means controlled from said electric source and adapted to be energized when said first two named switches are closed and to actuate said rocking element so as to engage said two elements with one another to render said registering means operative.

ABRAHAM WEISS. 

